Educational, But Not Very Entertaining
A Review of Danny Glover Tells Aesop's Fables
Tina Velgos
If you are looking for software for your kids (ages 6 and up) that is
strictly educational, look no further than Danny Glover Tells Aesop's
Fables (Philips Media).
But if your kids are looking for entertainment,
they won't find it in this software title.
Although Danny Glover Tells Aesop's Fables' introduction starts off with
solid animation and music, the kids quickly realize that the 24 Aesop's
fables, narrated by actor Danny Glover, are not animations, but rather of series of static images.
It reminded me of being in elementary school and
watching slide shows in the middle of the day. It would have been nice for
the kids to view a more entertaining animated version of Aesop's than a
series of images. Also, Jazz maestro Ron Carter's musical backdrops
detracted from Glover's concise narration. It was very easy for our kids
to lose interest in the middle of a fable. This rarely happens with CD-ROMs
in our household! Why not check out a book at the local library and
introduce the kids to your favorite Aesop's Fables or let them read Aesop's
to you instead of tying up a $2,000 computer watching slide shows?
The only interactive activities in Danny Glover Tells Aesop's Fables are
the Mazes and Puzzles in the Main Menu. Here, kids can select from 60 mazes
and 36 sliding puzzles and choose from 3 levels of difficulty. The easy
level involves 20 frog mazes, the medium level includes the Tortoise and
the Hare mazes and the hard level consists of the Lamb and the Wolves
mazes. The sliding puzzles differ in the number of puzzle pieces. Selecting
the easiest level gives the kids a small number of puzzle pieces, and as
each level of difficulty increases, kids are given more puzzle pieces to
arrange. If kids need help remembering what the puzzle looks like when it's
finished, they can click on the Fire Symbol to get a hint. They will get a
five-second sneak peek at the finished puzzle before it re-scrambles back
to the way it was.10-year-old Stefanie complained that the hardest level
for the mazes and puzzles was way too easy for her. The sliding puzzles
were three-and-one-half-year-old Timmy's favorite activity. This product
carries an Early Childhood rating (ages 3 and older) by the Entertainment
Software Rating Board.
Kids can select five options from the main menu: Play All The Fables, Select a Fable, The Animal Characters, All About Aesop, and Mazes and Puzzles. The options are arranged on a vine and the kids click on each leaf to choose an option.
Playing all 24 fables was tedious work for Stefanie. She said that a few of
the fables were very sad, but she enjoyed the All About Aesop section which
featured two segments: How the Fables Were Told and The Origins of Aesop's
Fables. The Select a Fable option was more manageable, however, there was
no caption that appeared on the screen while the fables were narrated. Kids
have to click through several screens to remind them which fable they had
selected to listen to.
The Animal Characters option allows the kids to select an animal featured in Aesop's fables so they can listen to Aesop's interpretation of the human attributes each animal represents.
The contemporary approach of reciting Aesop's Fables on a CD-ROM is novel to educational material, but will your kids sit still for this? There won't be any fighting over who gets to use Danny Glover Tells Aesop's Fables in our house!
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Danny Glover Tells Aesop's Fables |
| Company: |
Philips Media
|
| Cost: |
$29.99 |
System Requirements:
IBM:
386/25 MHz (486SX recommended),
4MB of RAM (8 MB recommended,)
Windows 3.1 or later,
VGA video adapter,
Windows-compatible sound card,
CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended),
Mouse (joystick is not supported).
Apple Macintosh:
68030 processor (LCII or higher),
256 color display,
6 MB of RAM (8 MB recommended),
CD-ROM drive,
Mouse.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 1
Graphics 2
Sound 3
Overall Score:
Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.